Chapter 1511 Abakar (1/2)
”What about the flaws of this rock?” Li Du asked.
Zhong Dapao spread his arms. ”There's one very distinct flaw. The quality of the jade from this rock is either outstanding, translucent like ice or glass, or it's complete and utter garbage. Jade of poor quality is liable to be polluted by the black fog, so the price is likely to be low.”
This was the reason why there were so many customers here at Longken. Longken attracted people who liked to gamble and take risks. The jade produced locally was mined in conditions where the soil, water, and type of jade complemented each other, so making a windfall was really likely. Of course, if one blew a fortune but it did not pay off, it was possible to go bankrupt just as easily. Of the two possibilities, the latter was markedly more common than the former.
There were some people in the Chinese Village who suffered great losses from their gambles, and Zhong Dapao told Li Du as much in hopes that the latter would be more careful with the risks he took.
It was not as if all the risks Li Du took had paid off; there had been instances where he made several losses. It was just that he had managed to recoup the losses so, on the whole, he did make a profit. However, at Longken, things would become tricky the moment one lost because the stone was expensive.
Li Du nodded to acknowledge Dapao's words. So far, the stones he saw here were not particularly impressive. They were mostly regular mountain jade.
They had not been in the market for long before an argument flared up abruptly. People were hotly debating in the local tongue, but also in Chinese and a language that sounded like Japanese or Korean. Li Du could not understand a single word.
Liu Zi, on the other hand, managed to catch bits and pieces of the conversation and he
piped up excitedly, ”Let's go over to the public market. Someone from Hong Kong has bought Abakar and he's going to cut it. Everyone's heading over to see.”
Li Du asked curiously, ”What's Abakar?”
Zhong Dapao explained, ”It's the name of a rock. You know, rocks that are really good and have a reputation will get their own name, and Abakar is one of those. Its starting price was 5 million dollars!”
”Hong Kong dollars?”
Zhong Dapao retorted, ”No, American dollars!”
Li Du grinned. It was astounding that a rock was priced so high even though it was not cut yet.
Here's the thing: this was Myanmar, the place jade originated from. As it was with any product, things were usually cheaper at their place of origin. Raw jade sold for the highest price in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Now that China was becoming richer, the price for raw jade has been rising accordingly.
Li Du knew all about it. In most cases, the value of jade would rise substantially after it had been shipping from Hpakant to the foreign market. This was the reason why so many in the jade business were willing to travel here – the profit margin was definitely worth it!
Bearing this in mind, how much could Abakar be worth after it left the country if it was already selling for 5 million dollars now? A billion? Two billion? Anything was possible. Longken was a relatively new market and a rather large space, but as of now, it was already full.
Li Du and his company arrived late so they could not squeeze in, but Zhong Dapao was calm. Lighting a cigarette, he said, ”Rocks like this will make it on the elevated platform, so let's just wait and see.”
To make it to the elevated platform meant literally that people would hoist the rock onto a stand. The public market had a platform that functioned like an elevator, which would rise if they were to display a rock that caught the public's eye. The boss and the expert would be on it, too.
Soon after, there was the sound of a motor starting up and a metal board that would function as the platform was suspended in the air. Li Du and his friends were still some distance away from the platform, so Zhong Dapao found a random person who managed to get them through the thick crowd and into the public market.